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River rocks of all shapes and sizes add a hard element to balance the soft features of flower beds. River rocks get tumbled in water so they have smooth and polished finish, making them easy to work with. If you happen to live near a river or creek, river rock is in abundant and free supply, but you can also find these useful landscape stones at landscape and garden supply centers. Whether you use them for decoration or to serve a purpose, river rock makes a welcome addition to a plant bed.

Edging Material

Plant beds benefit from some sort of edging material to form a boundary between the bed and walkways, patios or lawns. Edging is especially important if the plant bed has clumping perennials or potentially invasive plants, because it keeps these plants from spreading outside the boundary. You can arrange river rocks in a line side-by-side to create a simple flowerbed border. Clumping perennial beds require a border at the root level, so it's best to dig a few inches down in the soil and bury some river rock, essentially creating a small retaining wall to prevent the roots from spreading. A short wall of stacked river rocks is visually appealing and creates a raised plant bed for anything from flowers to vegetable crops.

Plant Markers

Plant identification is easy when plants are in full bloom, but requires some guesswork when foliage looks the same or when plants are dormant in the winter. Simple river rock plant markers identify the plant species, making it easy to find a new planting space, such as when planting new flowering bulbs in fall or early spring. One easy plant marker idea is to paint the name of the plant on a river rock, then spray over the painted area with an acrylic sealer to protect it from the weather. If you have the original seed packet or a picture of the plant from a garden catalog, you can cut out the image, then decoupage it to the stone with a decoupage medium or watered-down white glue.

Focal Points

Medium to large river rocks work well as decorative focal points in plant beds. Large rocks stand out when planted in the center of the flower bed with a ring of bright flowers planted in a circle around them. Several rocks, placed sporadically throughout the plant bed, lends a less formal garden design. Plants that tend to droop if they grow too heavy, such as lavender, benefit from a medium to large river rock placed beside the plant to help hold the foliage upright. A large, rectangular river rock in the plant bed serves as a focal point and a garden bench for small children.

Rock Garden

Rock gardens create a hot, dry planting bed suitable for a variety of plants, including shrubs, dwarf conifers and succulents. You must first ensure the location has good drainage, but the rocks in the garden help to add some drainage to the site. This project works well for a garden on a slope or on a manmade berm. You can arrange several river rocks of various sizes throughout the garden space. A portion of the rocks should be buried, working with the natural ridges and valleys of the slope, to make them look like natural features of the landscape. Flowers, shrubs and other plants fill in the spaces between the rocks; you can also plant small plants in the natural crevices found in some rocks.

About the Author

A former cake decorator and competitive horticulturist, Amelia Allonsy is most at home in the kitchen or with her hands in the dirt. She received her Bachelor's degree from West Virginia University. Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and on other websites.

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Allonsy, Amelia. "How to Use River Rock in Plant Beds." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-river-rock-plant-beds-31279.html. Accessed 15 September 2019.

Allonsy, Amelia. (n.d.). How to Use River Rock in Plant Beds. Home Guides | SF Gate. Retrieved from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-river-rock-plant-beds-31279.html

Allonsy, Amelia. "How to Use River Rock in Plant Beds" accessed September 15, 2019. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-river-rock-plant-beds-31279.html

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